Scarlet Siege: Gary Celdom Case Journals, #1

By Douglas J. McLeod

Gary Celdom is a veteran detective with over 25 years experience. However, when he decides to attend a fan convention, it turns into a hostage situation. With the help of his partner, a friend from a previous case, and the spiritual guidance of his former fiancée, can Detective Celdom apprehend the captors and enjoy his weekend off?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Douglas J. McLeod
• Release date: Apr 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201122010

Book preview

Douglas J. McLeod

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © Douglas J. McLeod, 2013

McLeod, Douglas J. 1971 –

Scarlet Siege

Third Edition

Detective – Fiction. 2. Toronto (Ont.) – Fiction. I. Title.

Cover photograph: Douglas J. McLeod,

This book is set in Times New Roman

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Chapter 1

S o let me get this straight, Jessica said. You’re taking the weekend off to do what again?

I’m taking the weekend off to attend a fan convention for my favourite TV show in town, I replied.

Jessica Amerson, my colleague down at the Division, just shook her head in disbelief. I can’t say I blame her. Here I am, a guy who recently turned the ripe old age of 51, hanging around a bunch of fellow fans who will be attending a fan convention for Northern Winds, a television show which had not been on the air since the turn of the millennium. Chances are most of the people attending are ones who got turned onto Northern Winds via the release of the four seasons on DVD over recent years. I, on the other hand, got hooked on Northern Winds – which was shot in Toronto – during the original airing of its second season.

How many people are attending this thing? she enquired.

The organizers are capping the attendance at 100 people, I responded. They said it was to help keep the intimacy of the event. I can’t say I blame them. Some of these fan conventions could get hundreds or thousands of attendees. Just look at that big one they do down at the Convention Centre every year.

Which is happening next week, my colleague noted. Have you ever missed one of these things?

Actually, this is the first one I’ve ever attended, I admitted. Some people probably have been there since the beginning, or pretty darn close to it.

So Lt. Davies is cool with you booking this time off? Jessica asked sceptically.

He’s been in consultation with Ann, and she suggested I take some time off, I noted.

Just then, I heard a familiar, yet haunting voice off in the corner of the squad room; a voice that has occasionally popped up at the oddest, and sometimes most inconvenient, times.

And what sort of cock and bull story did you tell her to pull this off, Gary? the ghostly feminine voice quipped.

I tried to ignore the voice of the spirit of one Karen Prairie, the woman I was once engaged to years ago.

Did you tell Ann that you had another traumatic case, and you needed to take a brief stress leave? my former fiancée harassed while I continued to attempt to ignore her. Let’s be honest, Gary, she continued. The last time you had any real stress was when you had that Barbadian bimbo pay you a visit for your 50th birthday last year.

The Barbadian bimbo would be my ex-girlfriend, Elaine Abraham; a young woman I had a long-distance relationship with when I was investigating the murder of my former colleague, Rob McManus, who was celebrating a second honeymoon with his wife Maureen. Elaine and I would break up a year later. She cited the distance was too much to bear; however, I would find out later she had met someone local and decided to leave me for him. However, by the time Elaine came to visit me for my birthday last year, the two of them had broken up, and she wanted to get back together with me. But, during the time apart, I came to realize long-distance relationships take a toll on oneself; a lesson I should have realized once I lost Karen on our wedding day when she was assassinated by Russian terrorists hell-bent on revenge. It’s taken me a very long time to let Karen go; so much so, she still haunts me to this day.

Jessica noticed I was starting to get slightly agitated for some unknown reason, but it was definitely by Karen’s ghostly criticism.

Are you alright, Gary? she asked.

Yeah, I’m just having a flashback again, I feigned an excuse, as I took a sip of my coffee.

Isn’t the medication Ann prescribed you working? my colleague quizzed.

It is to an extent, I confessed, but, I still have the odd episode.

Seriously, Gary, Karen razzed, resorting to drugs to deal with someone you haven’t been able to fully move on from? That’s not the Gary Celdom I know and was going to marry.

Do you think you should talk to her about getting the levels adjusted? Jessica wondered. I know the counselling helps some, and the odd time off, but this is something that’s been troubling you for a while now.

Twenty years, I confessed. It’s not something I want to live with, but it’s a cross I’ve had to bear for that long. I just can’t live down the fact she died in my arms, Jessica. When that happens to you, it’s something that scars you for life.

I can imagine, she nodded. She was the one you were supposed to marry. If that happened to me, and it was my soon-to-be husband dying in my arms, I would have some serious mental and emotional issues too.

Sister, you don’t know the half of it, Karen mocked. Getting a bullet in the shoulder is one thing, but when you have one pierce your skull, and then another right through the heart, it’s the worst feeling in the world. The blood, scars, and trauma are too much for anyone to endure.

And the mental aftermath lingers on for years afterwards, I muttered sarcastically at Karen, just like I’m experiencing right now.

No need to get snippy, Gary, Karen shot back. I know it hasn’t been easy for you over the years, but you really needn’t turn it towards me.

I returned my attention to Jessica and confided, It’s something I wouldn’t wish upon anyone. That’s why Lt. Davies suggested I start talking to Ann after that whole episode with Elaine last year.

I still can’t believe she would travel all the way to Toronto to try to patch things up with you, Jessica stated, as she shook her head.

I guess she thought she had a shot in getting back together with me, I opined. But I moved on, albeit reluctantly, and I thought she should be too. Let’s face it; I’m no spring chicken anymore. I’ve been in this business now for nearly 30 years now. I don’t need to go chasing after young women who live practically on the other side of the globe.

You got that right, Karen smirked.

Have you thought about retiring anytime soon, Gary? Jessica enquired.

You’d think I would after everything I’ve been through over the years, I conceded. However, there’s still plenty of fight left in this dog. I’ve been shot, stabbed, had broken bones and lacerations, but as long as I still keep ticking, I’m going to keep on keeping on. Besides, there are still some criminals that need to be put behind bars out there, and I’m going to do my damnedest to bring them to justice.

Or at least die trying in the process, Karen criticized.

Jessica stood up from the edge of the desk she was sitting on, Anyway, I should get back to my paperwork. Are you going to be in for much longer?

I just have to finish these reports before I can bugger off, I noted.

Alright, she mentioned. Just let me know when you leave. If I’m not at my desk, you have my cell number. Send me a text to let me know you’ve left, and I will see you back here on Monday.

Will do, Jessica, I confirmed.

Jessica smiled at me as she walked back to her desk at the other end of the office. I smiled back as I watched her walk off. Karen noticed me looking at my colleague, and shot me one of the most unimpressed looks I’ve come to expect from her.

You know she’s flirting with you, the ghost of my former fiancée commented.

She is not, I denied.

Jeez Gary, are you getting blind at your old age? she quipped. ’Send me a text to let me know you’ve left’? If that’s not a flirtatious comment, I don’t know what is.

Jessica is just my colleague, Karen. She’s just as concerned about my health and well being as you are.

Still, I think she’s looking at you as possibly more than just a colleague.

I don’t think that’s possible. Dating a fellow colleague is wrong.

You dated and were engaged to me.

That’s different, I stated.

How do you figure?

When you and I met, while we were members of the same security force, you lived in Edmonton while I was here in Toronto. We weren’t working side by side on a daily basis.

And working together in the same city would have been a problem?

It would’ve been frowned upon by our Superior Officer, I attempted to reason. You know how some people can be about two officers dating in the same workplace.

Gary, you have got to be the dumbest shit I’ve ever known, Karen shot back. You do realize if we were successful in getting married, I would’ve had to move to Toronto or you to Edmonton, and we would be working together.

Maybe not directly together; we might’ve been assigned to different Divisions or something.

That’s highly unlikely. In all likelihood, we would’ve been working in the same Division. Maybe with different partners, but we would definitely be in the same workplace.

Be it as it may, it would be you or I marrying into there. If things were to happen with Jessica, I would be dating a colleague in a Division where we were both originally working. It might be acceptable amongst our superiors, but you know how inter-office gossip can be.

And far be it for you to toot your own horn, Karen deadpanned.

What is that supposed to mean?

Oh, I don’t know, Gary. How about the number of times you’ve bragged about your role in that Security Force we both worked in? How you were responsible in apprehending all of those Russian terrorists, and saved Team Canada in Calgary. Does that ring any bells?

It was a hallmark case, I meekly noted.

Damn it, Gary, it was a team effort. You just come off as more of a glory hog whenever you’ve claimed you were the one behind their arrest.

I just sat at my desk and thought about it. As much as I hated to admit it, she was right. All of these years I had been glossing over the fact I was just one member of a cross-Canada team who were policing the World Winter Games when the terrorists struck. While we were successful in apprehending them in the end, many lives were taken at the Russians’ hands during those 16 days. Then again, one could have easily argued one life lost was one life too many. Looking back, it was a black mark not only on the Games themselves, but on our unit as a whole. I tend to highlight the positives from that fortnight: the apprehension of the terrorist group, and the fact I first met Karen then. Everything else from that bloody February underneath those blue Alberta skies was something I had been attempting to block over all of these years.

You’re right, I sighed. I have been bragging too much about it. It’s just we tried our best to get those Russians, but didn’t stop them earlier.

I don’t blame you, Karen nodded. A lot of innocent lives were lost then. It was a traumatic two and a half weeks on us all.

It was one of the most brutal events I had ever endured up to that point. I don’t think any of us were ever really the same after that.

I know I wasn’t. Tell me, Gary, what would you rank as the more horrific event in your life: those two weeks in Calgary, or the day I was gunned down?

I thought about it for a minute before responding, On sheer carnage alone, it was that case in Calgary. But, on a sheer emotional level, it had to be when I lost your physical being in my arms.

That’s what I was hoping for.

What, you were testing me?

Just wanted to see if you really still cared about me, Karen grinned deviously.

Karen, I’m having a conversation with your spirit, just like I’ve been sporadically for the past twenty years. If that’s not a sign about my emotional investment in you, I don’t know what is.

Duly noted, she smirked.

Anyway, I need to get these reports finished, so could you please leave me be for a while?

Sure thing, Gary; I’ll talk to you later.

With that, the ghost of my deceased fiancée vanished. I sighed and shook my head. While she may